Tips for a good Personal Profile

Make sure your CV stands out from the rest!

In a personal profile or summary you give the reader a short introduction about yourself. You tell them who you are, what your competencies and personal qualities are and what your ambitions are. In this text you show who you are before you move on to the hard facts. The most important message the reader should be able to glean from your personal profile is who you are, where your strengths lie and what you want to make of your career.

But the question is why add a personal profile to your CV?
A recruiter sees a lot of CVs every day. By adding a personal profile to your CV you can stand out from all the other applicants. Recruiters and employers are mainly interested in what kind of person you are. A personal profile on your CV is the best way to keep recruiters interested and make sure they keep reading your CV.

How do you write a good personal profile?
A personal profile on your CV is all about breaking the ice. Showcase yourself! Consider the following questions to base your profile on:
– What are my personal attributes?
– What makes me really ‘me’?
– What am I good at?
– What are my ambitions/goals?

Set up your profile based on the answers to the above questions. This will cover everything a recruiter or employer wants to know about you! Make sure you don’t just list features.

Avoid writing long texts, try to keep it short and concise. It is important not to fall into clichés such as “I am looking for a new challenge…”. Write your personal profile from the first person and give the text your personal touch!

Tips for a personal Profile:

1. Avoid writing long texts
A personal Profile should stand out. Long texts do not stand out and do not encourage reading. The personal profile is a concise summary of your resume and cover letter. It includes your most important competencies, your ambitions and your goals, summarized in a maximum of 6 lines.
So write in shorter sentences and limit yourself to the content that relates to the position you are applying for.

2. Don’t fall into clichés
To convince the recruiter or employer with your personal profile you have to be unique and stand out. You do this by using the right choice of words. Avoid clichés! Several applicants often use the same words in their introduction. For example, every applicant is ‘looking for a new challenge…’

What terms should you avoid?

‘I don’t have a 9 to 5 mentality’

‘Good communication skills’

‘Being a team player’

‘Looking for a new challenge’

‘Thinking out of the box
‘
If you use the same terms as your competitors, your CV will stand out less. So be original. Not only in your CV, cover letter, but also on profiles such as LinkedIn. Would you like to show that you can think out of the box? Describe examples of situations where you have thought out of the box. Give the text your personal touch!

3. Use keywords from the vacancy
Recruiters often use keywords in their vacancies. When reviewing CVs of candidates they are often looking for these keywords in their profile. Therefore try to find the keywords in the vacancy text and incorporate them into your CV, but only if they apply to you. Especially keywords related to competences and personality are good to use in the personal profile.

4. Adjust your personal profile with every application
If you use keywords from the vacancy don’t forget to adjust your personal profile with every application. Besides, every company is different and looking for different qualities, so it is important to always adapt your application to the company you are applying to. Look for the key words in every vacancy and try to use them in your personal profile if they apply to you.